This is a challenge to take back your productivity.

(The initial challenge is over but a ton of people are starting again this week – DO IT!)

Hi. My name is Kyle and I have a problem:

I’m addicted to information.

The above photo is of books that I am either currently reading or recently finished (missing: Antifragile, The Impact Equation, and Antifragile). It’s a whole bunch of input.

I love digging into one book and then another and another. There is so much fascinating information out there. Brilliant people wrapping up their brilliant ideas in a couple hundred pages. How can one resist?

It’s even worse when I go into Google Reader or my inbox and I see the headlines of a million bloggers with life-changing things to say. They have the key to life! They have the final answer to getting all the traffic in the world to this blog! They have the best business lessons we can learn from ancient civilizations! All the answers are there every time.

Some information is good to miss out on.

So I click. I click and I read and I find interesting information. Sometimes I even use that information. Recently, though, it’s just been a binge. Hours of shoveling ideas into my head. If you try really hard, you can know everything (read: 0%) there is to know.

My head is so full of their ideas that my own are drowning. My own idea muscle is atrophying.

It’s time to reboot and remember that the most important ideas are the ones you act on.

I’m challenging myself and you to do an information reset. Below are the rules:

For one week:

No reading books.

No reading blogs.

No reading newspapers.

No going on Facebook (even just to post).

No watching TV (shows, sports, news, anything).

No watching movies.

No listening to talk radio.

No going on Reddit.

No going on Twitter.

No information input – only output!

I know this sounds absurd but believe me, this week (starting Monday!) could help establish your relationship to information input and output for the rest of the year.

Keep in mind that I’m not hating on learning by reading. Reading holds a near-sacred place in my life. The idea here is to reset our relationship with reading and watching and consuming. Mindless consumption can kill our creativity.

Take a step back and look at your information intake

The Case for Input Deprivation Week

You’ll take more action. When you take out all the time in the day that you spend on reading and looking at pictures of kittens online you suddenly find yourself with a ton of free time. I understand that looking at mindless pictures online and reading a business book are two different types of inputs – obviously the cats are much more useful – but both of them drain you of opportunities to move forward on things you know you need to be.

It’s much easier to start in on the next item on your action list when you can’t distract yourself with whatever people are deciding to yell about on their Facebook walls. I am finding that it’s actually much easier to be productive because I’m not thinking of that book I want to be reading or going on reddit.

Get Zen!

Increased mindfulness. While writing this post I have hit CMND+”T”+”FAC” about 5 times. Those are my keyboard shortcuts to get to Facebook. It’s my reflex every time there’s a pause in work. I do the same thing if a page is taking a while to load.

I deleted the Facebook and Pulse (app for reading blogs) off my phone because my reflex was to go on and read Seth Godin’s genius blog every time I was in line or stinking up a bathroom.

It’s amazing how much like crack addicts we information addicts actually are. We think we have to be getting new information and staying on top of the news or we’re falling behind. We think that if we go one minute without putting something new into our brains that we’ll become outdated or something. When you aren’t allowed to quench these info-cravings you are forced to notice your relationship to information. Very rarely do we go to a blog or book looking specifically for an answer to a problem. It’s a guiltless way of entertaining ourselves. We can call it education even though it’s almost always just an excuse to procrastinate.

You become aware of what you post to social networks. There have been three distinct times today that I’ve had an urge to post to Facebook and Twitter. It’s brutal. I had the wittiest things to say! They would have gotten a million “Likes”, it would have been great. If only I didn’t have a stupid rule stopping me… Posting on Facebook takes much more than just making the post. It’s the time I’d spend looking at how many likes it had and wondering if people would comment on it.

You have more ideas. It’s common for people to report that they get their best ideas in the shower, walking, or something similarly relaxing. Albert Einstein said that he found solutions to the most difficult problems while playing the violin. By taking away your reflexive consumption of information you open yourself up to way more opportunities to sit in that silence. When you’re not busy looking at other people’s ideas it’s easier to hear your own.

LIGHTNING STRIKE IDEAS!

You realize what you’re looking for. When you have the urge to read a book and can’t it’s easy to see why you’re trying to read it. We often go to read about a problem that we already know how to solve. The solution is usually better found by sitting and actually trying to think about it ourselves.

For instance, reading a 10th book on health won’t make you more healthy. We all know the basics – just stop eating shitty food and go work out. That will take most of us farther than any book.

Reading another post on writing well won’t help me nearly as much as continuing to write will. Reading the newest business acquisition almost definitely won’t help me grow my own business. When I have the urge to read about something I now have to ask myself, “How can I best solve this problem myself?” Often, the answer I needed is waiting right behind that question.

Makes you more social. The first thing I do when I get in line at the coffee shop is get my phone out. God forbid somebody make eye contact with me. I don’t want to talk to you people, I wonder if anybody liked that very purposeful status I just made? Maybe you won’t talk to a bunch of people in line – I know I won’t – but at least I’m not avoiding standing with some fellow human beings.

You realize what news matters. You will hear about any news that impacts you from a friend. People talk about the things that matter. A meteor hit Russia yesterday and did a ton of damage. It’s crazy! That’s news! And I heard about it immediately because people talked about it. I didn’t hear about anything else. Apparently it wasn’t all that exciting. One of my good friends loves tech – he tells me everything I should know about the tech world. If I looked at a newspaper today I would probably get excited or upset about tons of headlines and then do exactly zero about them.

Thanks Amy!

You gain respect for your own ideas. When you spend too much time reading other authors it’s easy to get lost in all the things you should be doing. You begin to see all the things that you’re not doing and all the things that others are doing better than you. You miss all the things you’re doing right. Reading an article about building a relationship with an audience doesn’t help me build an audience with you. I need to spend time testing ideas and writing about them for you. I need to spend more time emailing and meeting with you. That can’t be done be reading, only engaging.

You gain perspective on information intake. When the week is over and you return to your information intakes, you will have a better relationship with them. You’ll catch yourself when you run to reddit to procrastinate. You’ll realize that you’re not actually on Facebook for anything productive most of the time. You’ll be more likely to take action on the information you read because of the self-discipline you’ve developed.

You’re forced to be original. When you can’t look for another person’s ideas on something you’re forced to come up with something yourself. When you can’t go looking online for inspiration you have to find it around (and inside) yourself.

Sometimes it’s a matter of setting up your environment

How To Stay Strong

It can take a lot of willpower to stop yourself from so many habits at once. Most of us can barely fix one bad habit at a time. I’ve found some tricks to make it easy though. The secret is to set up your environment so it’s more annoying to fall back into your bad habit than it is to maintain your input deprivation. Take 15 minutes to guarantee that you won’t be tempted to give up on Day 1.

Delete your consumption apps. I deleted Facebook, Pulse, and Twitter off my phone. Delete the apps that you reflexively go to when you have a minute of free time.

Move your books and magazines. They will just taunt you if they’re sitting on your bedstand or at your desk. Make a stack and put it out of site.

Carry a notebook with you. You’re going to begin having ideas pop up in your head, make notes of them. I like notepads more than phones because we associate them with creating instead of consuming. It’s risky to take notes on a smartphone if you’re trying to avoid inputs.

Take the batteries out of your remote. When you have the urge to flick on the TV you’ll have to go get batteries for the remote. This is a barrier to TV that will save your willpower pool from draining as you stare down the remote thinking about all the Jersey Shore and MadMen you’re missing.

If you did these 5 things you’re good to go.

Let’s Do This!

This is going to be tough, but it will be easier if we do it together.

If you’re game – comment below. Let us know you’re doing it with us and check in throughout the week.

If you have a question about the challenge (or a challenge for the challenge), let me know in the comments!

Thanks for taking the time to read this! Let me know what you think - the good, the bad, the ugly - in the comments below.
I'm an entrepreneur (more in the StartupBros About Page) in St. Petersburg, FL but this World Wide Web let's us connect from anywhere in the world:
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There’s no conversation or mildly arguing anymore. Everyone just googles it and conversation ends. You can’t tell if someone is smart or not. It’s a very scary world now and, yes, even at my age, I can relate to all of the above. For some reason I think I have to watch everything I’ve dvr’d, and I’ve been sitting on my ass doing just that all day! At least you see it, Kyle. Good job.

Thank you ,great message and a brilliant idea .
I agree with all what you said, reading to this level stops our brain from creativity .I cant do it this Monday but I need to do it next Monday . Let us use our knowledge creatively .

Yes, I am going to join you, as best I can. Already put down the remote. Thanks for the awesome ideas. cooper

Thanks for bringing this important issue to light.
I, and others, know this to be true, but are weak
willed and feel alone and powerless. This concept
is empowering and could result in so many great
accomplishments. You are awesome!

So if we have questions we can emaail you or comment here ans we will get a quick reply. Meaning you didn’t delete/quit email and you’re gonna get distracted from it? LOL
Anyways I’m up for the chaallenge starting today that I just found this article. I have stopped using facebook in the paast for like 5 months and I can tell the first 4-5 days are the most difficult to hold. After that it becomes natural and it feels really good. I really miss that time of natural-me wiithout all that digital information crap so I’m up for the challenge.

Oh yeah! I’m doing limited emailing and commenting – it’s no distraction to hang out with you guys! Smartynetwork looks great, looking forward to seeing what you do with it.
I’ve taken a similar break from Facebook with awesome results. What did you find from your break?
Cheers!

Thanks Kyle,
just like you, I quit the JOB scam one week ago to never return back to it alive and at SmartyNetwork I’m building a software company.

From the break, more free time to reflect on my life and career endeavors. More time to spend doing things I like and hanging out more. In general I noticed I was happier than usual and not attached to any of the online stuff, kind of more independent you know. I didn’t have that mind virus to login to fb several times a day just for the habit of doing so. It’s a mind virus many people suffer from today

Congratulations Altin!! That’s fantastic! I think you’re going to have a lot of success with smartynetwork.

It IS like a virus! There is literally a biological trigger that makes our brains need that kind of stimulation. Check out the links Casey shared in a comment above (or later, when you’re done with the challenge :P):

“See dopamine + mesolimbic pathway. Yes, I realize the irony of a comment on this post linking to Wikipedia.

hell yeah, I’m gonna succeed or die trying. that’s why i cut off every other possibility for me to “create” excuses. Right now i have all the time and freedom I want so I’m working hard daily on that goal. I wish the best for you too.
By the way I first visited your site about 3-4 months ago when I was dragging myself too that job and so was searchinng “how to quit your job” lol

No worries, Wally! You have almost half the time left to do it with us. At day 3 I was already noticing serious benefits (and dealing with serious struggle!) so hop on it now!

And you can always take it to a week from today. That will be way easier to do if you get a friend on board. It’s been much easier for me to do this because of all the awesome support everyone has been giving here and on email.

Feel free to email me, too!

And thanks A TON for sharing this. That may be the highest compliment a writer can be paid. Commenting and actually participating are up there, too

Like I told Kyle in an email exchange, it’s hard to cut yourself off completely when your livelihood depends on being online, including social media. I’ve been doing my best to keep everything work-related though, and spending less time with things that can be put off for a week or even a few days. Since Saturday I’ve come up with an idea for a new startup that’s more in the non-profit vein. I’ve already bought domains, set up a temporary landing page and begun contacting investors and potential partners. Waiting on trademark approval and then BOOM! Let your brain do some breathing, it makes life better.

Great Wally, however I think it would be a good idea to validate your startup idea via a survey (surveymonkey.com) or fb questions and see if people actually want it. We entrepreneurs often tend to come up with an idea, fall in love with it and spend many weeks to see that at the end it doesn’t get much of attention. that’s why it is always recommended to validate your ides as soon as possible. best of luck you your ventures

Thanks Altin! I think you are absolutely correct about the we love/they look at us blankly reaction to our own ideas. This one is a bit different, however. I don’t want to tip my hand too much yet, but the idea is not new and to the right people is a definite go. I’ve been getting attention without even searching much, which is why I’m moving on it. Like I said, it’s not an idea to make me wealthy, rather to encourage serving others. Cheers!

Thanks for giving it a go! I love the layout of your site, btw. Feel free to email or comment if you have any issues with the challenge! I promise – it gets HARD FAST. (That’s what she!…) Either way, keep in touch, it’s fascinating to see the different problems that everyone has been having and the solutions we’ve been coming up with!

Hey Edward! Night time is a trick for sure. If you’ve been working all day and your brain is fried it’s going to DEMAND that you stop thinking and get some inputs. These are the three things that saved me:
1. Journal. Just take out paper (I don’t like looking at digital screens at night – it fucks with sleeping) and begin writing. Don’t think of things to write, just write your stream of consciousness. Don’t use any brainpower, just report. By externalizing things you’ll discover problems and solutions to the challenge and your life at large.
2. Go on walks. Just start walking (slowly) and fight the urge to take your phone. Notice nature or the businesses in your city. After about 45 minutes of walking slowly your brain will slow down and let you start to notice interesting things about your surroundings. That’s when my best ideas come. But you got to beat out the swirling ideas by giving yourself plenty of time.
3. Talk with friends. Either go hang out with friends physically or let yourself have extended (non-purposeful) phone conversations. My week of non-inputs let me deepen my relationship with several people because I literally “had nothing better to do” than have extended conversations.

Let me know if those work or if you find your own!

(I usually go to bed and read for a couple hours so it was certainly weird for me to lie down in bed and have to bed and not do anything – except journal)

I want to kiss you. I’ve come across two articles in one day that have slapped me in the face. This is one of them.

I came across them while consuming. I’ve found that reading business books/self dev/blogs/etc is a form of procrasturbation for me. It makes me “feel” like I’m working because it’s not as apparent as looking at cats on reddit and I feel good because it’s “productive”!

My lizard brain will tell myself. “It’s not procrastination! I’m learning and preparing.” Good ole lizzy will even pull this quote from Lincoln to support it,

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Well I’ve been sharpening this damn as for too damn long. The tree is only growing and hell I don’t even know if it’s a solid tree that’s hard as a rock or a tree with a rotting inside because I haven’t swung my damn axe yet.

That’s the problem. I’m not applying what I’m consuming, I’m only consuming. Just like sharpening an axe everyday only to put it in the shed and not use it -_-

lizard brain/resistance/scum bag brain/etc is tricky. I’m figuring out his tricks day by day though

*urges to ctrl+t and type facebook/reddit are tingling very hard*

It really feels like I’m a freaking crack addict.

Try driving without the radio/smartphone/etc, only leaving yourself with your thoughts and driving. I get physically/mentally uncomfortable and need a fix. just a quick hit of that good facebook…. anything! just something to stimulate me!! I’m getting better though. working on the discipline muscle every day

I’m in. This will be the most productive week of my life.

-Kenny

p.s. Just writing an CREATING this post feels great. it solidifies my thoughts and bring them to reality.

p.s.s. the facebook and reddit urges are tingling but I slapped it in the face.

lol I love “procrasturbation” – that’s basically what it is. Makes you feel better for now but you’re not really building up to anything.

“Well I’ve been sharpening this damn as for too damn long. The tree is only growing and hell I don’t even know if it’s a solid tree that’s hard as a rock or a tree with a rotting inside because I haven’t swung my damn axe yet.” —HELL YES! If nothing else, action tests tests the tree for what it really is.

At least some of your procrasturbation was with Godin

YES! You literally created by commenting! Not only a post but another piece of inspiration for everybody here. Thank you for that! And thank you for what you’re about to make this week

Keep in touch and let us know how you’re doing with the challenge! It gets really damn hard, man. I know the support of some of the friends on this blog helped me immensely. LET US KNOW!

It’s a post by one of my fitness role models, John Romaniello. He has been very successful in the fitness industry/has a very successful fitness blog and just launched a new blog dedicated to everything not fitness related.

Ideas are just a multiplier of execution!!!! An idea is worthless if it’s not executed but a crappy idea executed is worth a billion+2.5 times more than that “perfect and ingenious” idea bouncing around your head. You learn 2 billion times more from executing an idea than war planning the freaking thing for years. War planning also leads to analysis paralysis and you end up finding and focusing on the holes on why the idea won’t work. Then…the lizard brain smooth talks yourself out of executing and trying the idea.

Then you are left at zero again and only left with self doubt and sometimes that arrogant feeling of “boy thank goodness I didn’t pursue that idea. it totally would have failed. I am so smart.” But in reality it’s only a cover up for your self doubt, lack of confidence, fear of shipping, fear of failing, fear of success etc.

IT’S ABOUT EXECUTION AND SHIPPING!!11!1!!! RAWRARWRWRWRGHAH

That felt good.

now back to actual work.

-Kenny

p.s. have you thought about instead of eliminating consumption, you schedule consumption time?

ex. Say you can consume material only at 8-9pm etc.

p.s.s. I’m also talking directly to my lizard brain through this post. :p

AMEN all the way through. I love me a little Sivers his post on what’s obvious to you was one of the keys to shouting about the things I know and love.

Scheduled consumption can work for some people but that’s not the point of this challenge. Input Deprivation is meant to completely reset your relationship with your information input. It’s about feeling the pain/urge to consume. If you get a scheduled break then it’s just not possible to really understand how you consume deeply enough.

And on execution! You’ll notice that most people doing really well aren’t all that intellectually brilliant (that’s more useful for dinner parties than building things), they just know their business/industry inside and out. They learned from flailing and failing and winning.

Cool post, definitely think this is a good challenge. However, although I believe there is merit in the idea of cutting off the massive amounts of input we all find ourselves attracted to, I think doing so entirely may be a mistake. Selectively choosing which inputs are the most relevant and actionable is the key, in my opinion. So filtering out the 95% and setting aside a specific amount of time (an hour or two per day?) to intake the “force multiplier”, as Tim Ferriss says. The information that will yield the most bang for your buck for your most immediate goals.

I could sit for days randomly experimenting with optimizing my blog, writing posts, or learning wordpress. In the end, that would take far longer than picking up a book on one of these issues and tackling it with some guidance. That doesn’t mean overwhelm yourself with information. Just choose the single most useful input (book, website, w/e), consume it with very specific goals in mind, and then immediately act on it. Cut everything else out, just focus on that one very specific idea.

I could try and learn the principles of physics without any prior knowledge or informational resources and probably not understand in a lifetime would I could learn in a dedicated month with a textbook, which has compiled the work of many great minds over thousands of years of experimentation. I’m not decrying thinking for yourself, but there is a place for input. Great post, though, and I am completely on board with the spirit of the message!

I totally agree with you Tom. New ideas from outside our own heads are imperative! Benefiting from the experiences of others is a huge part of development.

I would never suggest cutting yourself off from all input forever. It’s a week-long challenge. The importance of zero input is to make obvious the intensity of our addictions to it. If we give ourself “just a little” input for the week then the transformation almost definitely won’t happen (I’ve tried… More than once).

Complete deprivation makes us more sensitive and appreciative as we introduce new inputs. It’s the most effective way I’ve found to getting to cutting 95%.

Guys this is perfect for me. I quit what I did for 20 years 2 months ago and I have been stuck in a spiral of input (Blogs self help books etc) and procrastination since. I’m going to have a go at this. Many thanks I’m hoping for a breakthrough.

This is such an inspiring post, I have been hopping from post to post on this site after landing here in my desperation to quit my ‘self help’ addiction. I am unsubscribing from all my Gurus, so I shouldn’t really subscribe to you either .. I will endeavour to unplug and go into action.
Thanks guys

Thank you so much for posting this, Kyle. I had read this a few months ago but didn’t have the guts to go through with it. I’ve been improving a lot in various aspects of my life lately, though (started working out, tackling lingering problems that needed/need solving, reevaluating my values in life), and I think I’m ready to try this now.

I have a few questions, though: what about, say; I want to try a new cake recipe but don’t know how to do it? Or some workout technique I’m not sure how to perform? Is it ok to look it up online or should I look elsewhere?

Also, what about checking e-mails? I do get a lot of silly useless stuff in my inbox, but there is some genuinely useful stuff in there (i.e. work related mail and some info about courses that I’m looking into).

Congrats on all the huge shifts you’re making. I think this piece will be helpful for you!

So the general rule is: don’t give yourself temptations.

If you want to look for an *exact* cake recipe, then it’s fine to jump online and find it–but you have to explicitly tell yourself that you are getting online to do that ONE thing. It’s better if you just use the cake recipe on the back the cake mix for a week

On emails: The idea of input deprivation isn’t that information isn’t genuinely useful–it absolutely is! It’s about shifting your relationship TO information. Unless you’re going to lose your job, don’t check your email. You can always go back next week and see what you missed. If you feel that you NEED to for work purposes, then give yourself one 20-minute period to do email a day. And be strict about it. This will focus you to ONLY deal with the emails that you actually need to.